The present invention relates to a shoulder anchor or deflection fitting for guiding a seat belt webbing to restrain an occupant sitting on a vehicle seat into a proper position for protecting the occupant.
A seat belt device is installed in a vehicle, or automobile, to restrain an occupant by means of a webbing in the event of vehicle collision, thereby protecting an occupant from injury due to collision with a vehicle body.
As schematically shown in FIG. 6, a typical conventional seat belt device 1 comprises a seat belt webbing 2, one end of which is fixed to a vehicle body, a retractor 3 for winding the other end side portion of the seat belt webbing 2, a tongue 4 slidably attached to the seat belt webbing 2, a buckle 5 fixed to the vehicle body and detachably engaged with the tongue 4, and a shoulder anchor or deflection fitting 7 supported at a center pillar 6 of the vehicle body for guiding the seat belt webbing 2 slidably in a longitudinal direction thereof.
When the seat belt device 1 is not used, the seat belt webbing 2 is completely wound by the retractor 3 to prevent looseness of the seat belt webbing 2. When the seat belt device 1 is used, the seat belt webbing 2 is smoothly withdrawn from the retractor 3.
The shoulder anchor 7 guides the seat belt webbing 2 for restraining an occupant sitting on for example a front seat 8 into a proper position.
The shoulder anchor 7 of the conventional seat belt device has a guide portion 10 defining a guide hole 9 through which the webbing 2 is slidably inserted. In order to slide the webbing 2 smoothly and support the inertial force of the occupant in the event of emergency, resin 12, such as polyacetal resin (POM), is molded over a predetermined area of an insertion metal 11 including the guide portion 10, as shown in FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b). The insertion metal 11 is provided with a mounting hole 11a formed in an area where the resin molding is not formed.
However, since the resin material has a relatively large contraction property, the molded resin shrinks after molding, thus deteriorating the appearance of the resin molding.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a shoulder anchor or deflection fitting in which forming ability of resin molding is improved by effectively absorbing shrinkage, i.e. reducing residual stress, of the molded resin in resin-molding a guide portion of a webbing.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.